We go to church with a truck

Clovis Missionary Baptist Church, Clovis, CA
“What does that say?” Donny asked.

Mindy and I read the sign. We were certain it clearly read, “Doc’s Garage.”

“That’s not it,” Donny told us. As I pondered my literary competence, Donny explained, “It’s Disciples of Christ’s Garage. There’s a madness to my mayhem,” he added. The stage under the sign is used every Friday night from May to September for the church’s hot rod gatherings.

Donny mentioned that there are many car shows in the Valley, but, he said, “we don’t do anything the way we’re supposed to.” The church doesn’t take sign-ups, charge admission fees, or limit the kinds of cars displayed. They don’t bring in food trucks that gouge the crowds; instead, the church sets up a barbeque and gives out food on a donation basis. It just so happens, they usually get more money that way than if they’d set a price for the food. Donny said, “It may seem we know what we’re doing… We just trust God.”

Clovis Missionary Baptist Church has been holding Hot Rod Gatherings for nine years now. They usually have at least three or four new people every week -- and a lot of regulars. Donny told me he overheard one of the regulars telling a visitor, “We don’t talk like that here at our church.” Donny said the regular had never been to a Sunday morning worship service, just Friday nights, but he considered CMBC his church. Some those Friday night folks have reached out to the church for help with counseling, for weddings and funerals, and some have even come for worship on Sunday morning.

Pointing to the sanctuary, Donny said, “People ask questions they wouldn’t be comfortable asking inside that building.” He said the gatherings are a good two-way street, allowing outsiders to get to know people in the church and people in the church to get to know outsiders.

We weren’t visiting on a Friday night -- we came for a Sunday night worship service on the church lawn. Nonetheless, there were cars (and a motorcycle) on display on the front lawn where the Hot Rod Gatherings are held.

The song leader (the only person wearing a tie that evening) said instead of using songbooks, we were going to sing familiar songs, beginning with “Victory in Jesus,” continuing with “Amazing Grace” and “God is So Good.”

Russell Bailey, the pastor of the church for the last thirteen years, came forward to speak. His text was Luke 14: 28 - 30, the passage about counting the cost before building a tower, so he talked about taking on a project without considering all that was in involved. He brought along quite a visual aid: a 1955 GMC pickup truck he’d traded for on Craigslist -- a truck that ended up needing much more work than anticipated.

“There are areas in our lives we need help, and there are people who can help,” he said, describing how others had helped him with the truck (which isn’t quite running yet). He pointed out that we’re often afraid to admit we need help. We lie to ourselves and say, “This won’t be a big deal.” His sermon closed with an invitation to receive Christ (as all good Baptist messages do).

After the service, we chatted with Pastor Bailey. He mentioned that for a long time the church emphasized foreign missions (after all, the church has “missionary” in their name.) But they realized that while they’d been obeying Christ’s call from Acts 1:8 to go to the ends of the earth, they hadn’t been going to their “Jerusalem.” With that realization, they began to put more of an emphasis on local ministry.

One of those ministries is Rafa Ranch, which uses “equine assisted learning” to help kids (I take it that means horses are involved). At Christmas, church members provide free hot chocolate to people seeing the lights on Candy Cane Lane. They participate in the Big Hat Days Clovis Rodeo Parade, and as far as they know, they’re the only church that does so. And they have a program called Clovis Connect to reach the community.

After the brief worship service, we headed into the fellowship hall with our chairs for sandwiches. The selection of fillings and breads were abundant; an old-school drinks cooler was filled with bottled water and sodas, and the dessert table was full of cookies, pies, cakes, and homemade ice cream.

I sat down with Donny and Cole (who runs the Clovis Connect program). During the week of Clovis Connect, they do a variety of projects. They go to markets and hand out free quality shopping bags. They do free car washes. They hold a daytime VBS program. They do a Pay It Forward program. And they figure on carrying on many of these programs throughout the year.

Donny told us that DOC’s garage, along with much of the promotional artwork for Hot Rod Gatherings, was done by a man who attends the Hot Rod Gatherings, but doesn’t attend the church. The church loves his work, but they’ve decided, for a variety of reasons, to do away with the brand names in the backdrop. They’ve painted over the “Firestone” on the tire, but are trying to decide what to put in its place. I suggested “Godsrich” -- you know, like “Goodrich” but not? 

I doubt they’ll take my suggestion because Hot Rod Gatherings at Clovis Missionary Baptist Church tend to do things better than that.